Successful teams don’t typically happen naturally or organically, and when you are on a team that works well together and achieves significant results, you want this progress to continue.

Yesterday, Promotional Consultant Today shared tips from business author Magi Graziano on how to build and ignite your team to produce optimum results. In summary, these tips were:

Identify and clarify the purpose of your team.
Select a leader.
Establish rules.
Select the right players.

Today, we wrap up this two-part series with three more key steps for building a high-performance team.

1. Set the level. Level-setting allows each member of the team a new opportunity to begin again. During a level set, team members explore their limiting beliefs and barriers to working with others in a productive and effective manner, and do the necessary work to unpack those factors that get in the way. The team is challenged to work together in experiential learning in ways they never considered.

Even the most effective, astute and self-aware people discover limits that were previously hidden from their conscious view. The team lays out the path for the best way to work together, and determines how they will resolve personality conflicts and internal challenges that arise.

2. Plan. The best approach for a leader during planning is to be a source for inspiration, questions and guidance. Leaders who step too far in to planning create teams that are dependent on the leader and lack creativity. If the leader notices a problem with the plan, rather than pointing it out, it is much more empowering to ask questions that provoke the team members to activate their critical thinking skills to help them think through the potential challenges.

3. Check in, track progress, celebrate success. When people are aware of the milestone meetings and rely on regular feedback from the team, it reduces uncertainly and unnecessary stress. Begin by laying out the stages of organizational effectiveness and then define the criteria for low, moderate and high momentum. This gives the team an opportunity to self-regulate, correct and celebrate as they see fit.

Devise a method to keep the team’s progress on track and support the team in maintaining momentum with their project, program or goal. Hold daily stand up meetings, or bi-weekly reviews to give teams the structure they can count on. These also give the team healthy guardrails to work independently while remaining responsible to each other and the organization.

Building a high-performance team is not about exponential breakthroughs. Teams respond best to a system that allows them to learn, move forward, fail, learn from mistakes, move forward again and sustain progress over time. When high concentration and effort is celebrated and low momentum is addressed, teams build confidence, stay on course and achieve significant milestones.

Source: Magi Graziano, as seen on NBC, is the CEO of KeenAlignment. She is also a speaker, employee recruitment and engagement expert, and author of The Wealth of Talent. Through her expansive knowledge and captivating presentations, Graziano provides her customers with actionable, practical ideas to maximize their effectiveness and ability to create high-performing teams. With more than 20 years’ experience as a top producer in the recruitment and search industry, she empowers and enables leaders to bring transformational thinking to the day-to-day operation.